AZUSA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked University of California San Diego got out to a 6-0 lead and withstood a furious late rally by No. 10 Dixie State University to win, 8-6, and lift its first NCAA Division II Championship West Regional trophy in seven years Monday at Cougar Baseball Complex.
Fourth-seeded UC San Diego was the designated home team, and improved to 40-17 on the season. Third-seeded Pacific West Conference (PacWest) runner-up Dixie State, out of St. George, Utah, saw its season end at 39-14-1. The teams had started the tournament against each other on Thursday night, with the Tritons taking a 5-2 victory. DSU, which survived a pair of elimination tilts on Friday and Saturday, would have needed to beat UCSD twice on Monday.
UCSD advances to the 2017 NCAA Division II Championship for the first time since back-to-back trips in 2009 and 2010, the latter one resulting in a national runner-up effort. The eight-team, double-elimination tournament will be held this year in Grand Prairie, Texas, at The Ballpark in Grand Prairie. The Tritons will take on East Region third seed and champion St. Thomas Aquinas College of Sparkill, N.Y., in their first game on Sunday, May 28, at 12 p.m. PT. Needing to lose twice like UCSD, the Spartans routed top-seeded host Southern New Hampshire, 13-2, in Monday's final.
The Tritons will be in search of the program's first-ever national crown. They twice previously were crowned Division III West Region champions in 1987 and 1994. UCSD and STAC have never met in the sport baseball.
Despite the early advantage, UCSD needed every bit of a two-run, eighth-inning home run by fifth-year senior centerfielder Brandon Shirley. Fellow senior Tyler Howsley singled sharply to open the inning, and with one away, Shirley hammered the first pitch he saw for a moonshot to left to regain a four-run cushion at 8-4. Dixie had scored four runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to cut into a 6-0 deficit and shift momentum in the Trailblazers' favor.
Dixie State still wasn't dead, as it managed two more runs in the ninth and put the tying run on first base, before another fifth-year senior, Troy Cruz (Chula Vista/Bonita Vista HS), finally got Miles Bice to fly out to, appropriately, Shirley, who squeezed it for UCSD's first regional dog pile since 2010. The Tritons are now three-time Division II West Region champions, having won it in 2009 as well.
Adrian Orozco (Chula Vista/Otay Ranch HS) was named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player, for his one-hit shutout in the first of two meetings with high-powered host Azusa Pacific on Friday night. He also registered eight big outs in his first relief outing of the season on Monday after 14 starts. Orozco was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Cruz, Shirley, Tyler Durna and Jack Larsen. Cruz and Shirley are both three-time honorees for their three trips to the regional during their careers. Larsen has two selections.
Junior right-hander Jack Rupe, Jr. (San Marcos/Mission Hills HS) struck out the side to start his day, around a two-out single, with the last two on called strikes.
A leadoff walk to Larsen didn't hurt sophomore right-hander Preston Hannay, who lodged the strikeout, flyout and groundout to keep the Triton senior at first.
A well-placed bunt single, hit-by-pitch and sacrifice began the second. Rupe, Jr., got Reece Lucero swinging, however, and then Trey Reineke to chop one to Durna at first, who flipped to the covering Rupe to leave two men in scoring position.
JD Hearn took a 3-2 pitch for a ball for starters in the home half, and Keenan Brigman got the sacrifice down. Hannay then blew one by Chad Crosbie, and got a groundout to end it.
Rupe got two easy outs in the third on a swinging strikeout and soft comebacker, but found some trouble. He hit Trey Kamachi, who then stole second, which effectively led to an unintentional intentional walk on four tosses to cleanup man Logan Porter. Tyler Mildenberg bounced into a fielder's choice inning-ender.
Howsley drew a four-pitch walk to make the Tritons three-for-three in opening innings in that fashion off of Hannay. This time, they cashed it in, scoring first for the fourth straight game of this tournament. Larsen drilled a 2-2 offering over the rightfielder's head to put both players in scoring position, and on the very next pitch, Shirley lifted a sacrifice fly for 1-0. Durna's single up the middle made it a 2-0 game. Alex Eliopulos' (La Jolla/La Jolla HS) hard shot to right center was caught nicely up against the wall by senior centerfielder Kamachi.
Hearn and Brigman, however, made sure the damage was not done. Hearn fouled off two 3-2 tosses and ultimately drew his second walk in as many at-bats, and then Brigman found the avenue up the middle for an RBI single to send Durna sprinting around third for 3-0.
Rupe picked the perfect time for his first perfect frame of the afternoon, achieving the shutdown inning on a popout, flyout, and strikeout looking for his sixth already.
Dixie State had to go to one of its aces, Dylan File, to start the fourth, and redshirt freshman catcher Nick Kitzmann greeted him with an opposite-field single through the right side on a two-strike count to put a fourth straight leadoff man on base for UCSD. Howsley bunted him over, but that was as far as he would get.
Rupe tallied a second consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, with two hard-hit lineouts straight into Larsen's glove in right, around a groundout to Howsley.
UCSD made it five-for-five in leadoff men on base as Durna worked a walk. The bases were quickly loaded. Shortstop Tyler Baker made the tough stab of another hard-hit ball by Eliopulos, but opted to try to get the lead runner, Durna, at second, instead throwing it wide of his second baseman from his knees. Runners were left at the corners there, but Hearn accepted a free base for his third plate appearance in a row, this time on a hit-by-pitch. Brigman dropped an RBI single just in front of the leftfielder, who contacted the ball, but couldn't come up with the grab. Kitzmann followed with an opposite-field sacrifice fly to right for 5-0.
After a ball thrown by File, Dixie State made a third pitching change, during which head coach Chris Pfatenhauer was ejected from the game. Howsley greeted Tyler Burdett by dropping an RBI single in front of the leftfielder.
Dixie State took advantage of an infield error in the sixth to finally get on the board. Redshirt senior right-hander Adrian Orozco (Chula Vista/Otay Ranch HS), he of the one-hit shutout from Friday night, took over with one away and men at first and second. After throwing a wild pitch, he came back to get Bryce Feist swinging. He then got Miles Bice to a two-strike count, but the rightfielder dumped a two-out, two-run single in front of Shirley in center to pull the Trailblazers to within 6-2.
Dixie State got another two runs closer with single tallies in the seventh and eighth before Orozco got out of both jams.
Rupe, Jr. (4-2), allowed two unearned runs on two hits, one walk and three hit-by-pitches over 5.1 innings. He struck out six. Rupe retired eight straight from the third to the sixth.
UCSD was out-hit by Dixie State in both matchups this week, by three both times. On Monday, Howsley went 2-for-2 with a sacrifice, walk, two runs and an RBI. Brigman added two hits over three at-bats and a sacrifice, and two RBI. Shirley had three RBI with the sacrifice fly and two-run shot. Durna wound up 1-for-4 with a walk, two runs and an RBI. Larsen was 1-for-3 with a double, walk, hit-by-pitch and run.
Hannay (3-3) lasted just 2.1 innings and allowed three runs on two hits and three walks. The sophomore right-hander struck out two.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 25-16 over nine NCAA Division II Championship appearances, including 11-6 in its fourth trip under head coach Eric Newman ... The Tritons are 3-2 against Dixie State all-time, with three straight wins, and all matchups coming at the NCAA Championship, including two at this one ... Tyler Howsley extended his consecutive games played streak to 166 dating back to the 2015 opener ... Jack Larsen has appeared in 121 straight games, all of them starts ... JD Hearn has appeared in 88 games in a row, all of them starts ... Hearn, Howsley and Larsen are the only Tritons to appear in all 57 games this season, with only Hearn and Larsen starting each ... Jack Rupe, Jr., drew his eighth start of the season and 15th of his career ... Larsen's leadoff walk in the first extended his reached-base streak to 39 games ... Keenan Brigman's second-inning sacrifice hit was his fourth ... Larsen's third-inning double was his team-best 19th, now tied for first in the CCAA ... Brandon Shirley's third-inning sacrifice fly was his seventh ... Howsley's fourth-inning sacrifice was his team-leading 13th of the season, and 34th of his career, a record for the program's Division II era (since 2001) ... Nick Kitzmann's fifth-inning sacrifice fly was the first of his college career ... Shirley's eighth-inning blast was his career-best sixth of 2017 and 10th of his Triton days ... UCSD's starters' ERA this postseason is 2.14, with 16 earned runs over 67.1 innings during this 10-game stretch, and all but one outing going at least 5.1 frames ... The starters' ERA in the West Regional was 0.90, with three earned runs in 30 out of 36 possible innings ... The Tritons never trailed in the tournament ... Larsen's leadoff walk gave him 136 for his career, second in the all-time UCSD record book behind only Matt Cantele (142) ... The Tritons have played seven consecutive games against nationally-ranked opponents (6-1), including six in a row in the top 10 (5-1), and are 8-3 against ranked foes in 2017 ... UCSD has reached the 40-win mark for the first time in sixth-year head coach Eric Newman's tenure, and first time since 2011
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